I see nothing as it is now.
* Father, please help me remember this.
1. This idea obviously follows from the two preceding ones. ²But while you may be able to accept it intellectually, it is unlikely that it will mean anything to you as yet. ³However, understanding is not necessary at this point. ⁴In fact, the recognition that you do not understand is a prerequisite for undoing your false ideas. ⁵These exercises are concerned with practice, not with understanding. ⁶You do not need to practice what you already understand. ⁷It would indeed be circular to aim at understanding, and assume that you have it already.
* This brings up the question of how many times do you need to do the Workbook IF you already have forgiven the very idea of separation from God and Creation and are able to follow the Inner Guidance system that says you are worthy that Jesus acknowledges as the Holy Spirit.
* I cannot answer for you. I know that it is helpful for me to review the principles that are taught here, and they go a bit deeper each time. You will want to follow your own guidance on this but again, I have found it very helpful to review though I no longer do the exercises.
2. It is difficult for the untrained mind to believe that what it seems to picture is not there. ²This idea can be quite disturbing, and may meet with active resistance in any number of forms. ³Yet that does not preclude applying it. ⁴No more than that is required for these or any other exercises. ⁵Each small step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the mind that has been cleared of the debris that darkens it.
* You may experience moments when things seem so REAL (I am talking about challenges and heartbreaking events here.) and you want to have compassion with yourself and others.
* For me, holding to the idea that God IS and that His Son is perfect and innocent as the child God breathed life into (figuratively speaking) makes all the difference.
* The Reality of God, once upon a time, personified by Jesus for me, is what has allowed me to exist in the physical in an environment that screamed anything but God. A Course in Miracles has allowed me to alter my thinking in such a way as to allow God’s Presence to flow and I see with spiritual eyes His Beloved Son in every tragedy that I hear about today. Years ago, I had to ask the Holy Spirit to carry the weight of the sorrow I felt when I looked out at the world. My second daughter was soon to be sixteen. It was a heart-breaking time for me, and I felt without means or capacity to stop the flow of trauma and terror that I saw in the world. But I saw it like rivers of blood running through the streets.
* I lived by what I thought were correct principles according to the things that I had been taught about what Jesus teaches. I failed miserably to uphold many simple ones such as allowing others to simple be who they choose to be. I thought I was to “change the world” and all I really needed to do was to let go of it and embrace God and my role as part of the Sonship of Christ with all my strength. Or rather, with the strength of God that is my True Self as a part of His Son.
* We cannot change the world, but we can recognize that a society made outside of the recognition of God will be nothing because God IS and nothing will alter that, no matter how long humanity wants to pretend otherwise.
* I recognize now that it was the Holy Spirit that did more than carry the burden of my sorrow through those years. He carried me literally out of the world and into the embrace of my Father in Heaven. And today I am able to recognize God in all that I see and know that it is beautiful.
3. These exercises, for which three or four practice periods are sufficient, involve looking about you and applying the idea for the day to whatever you see, remembering the need for its indiscriminate application, and the essential rule of excluding nothing. ²For example:
³I do not see this typewriter as it is now.
⁴I do not see this telephone as it is now.
⁵I do not see this arm as it is now.
4. Begin with things that are nearest you, and then extend the range outward:
²I do not see that coat rack as it is now.
³I do not see that door as it is now.
⁴I do not see that face as it is now.
5. It is emphasized again that while complete inclusion should not be attempted, specific exclusion must be avoided. ²Be sure you are honest with yourself in making this distinction. ³You may be tempted to obscure it.
* “Specific exclusion” is the temptation to hold out just this part of the world of confusion AS IF it were real. To do this will not allow God to be revealed to you. It might be that which “you know that YOU did all the work on,” or that bucket of garbage that surely is not important to God, that dildo on the side of the bed that you do not think that God would appreciate knowing about.
* Do you see the ways we try to hide ourselves away from the eyes of God? All-knowing, all-powerful, and everywhere? How we can do that when we understand these three things is rather hilarious when you think about it. Give it all up and let Him enter into your “BEING” because THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE. 
(ACIM, W-9.1:1–5:3)
Till next time, God bless, debi.
Freedom Principles; At-One-Meant Now 
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